Traditionally, organizations have produced complex business reports based on standards and traditional metrics, as prepared for them by their economists. It’s fair to say that carbon baseline figures have not been included in many of these reports to date, but this situation is changing as such as this measurement is now required according to the latest technological and scientific findings.

It’s no longer sufficient to refer to energy efficiency in terms of utility considerations only, as business executives are coming to realize. Society tells us that we must record the volume of carbon emissions associated with energy as well. It seems fair to predict that carbon will become a tradable commodity in its own right soon and a real value to be reported on balance sheets in the future.

If an organization is not aware of the amount of carbon emissions it is responsible for, it cannot introduce the carbon baseline as a key business metric for the future. Without a baseline, action is impossible and the situation may not be improved. Note that the public at large is becoming insistent upon the adoption of sustainability within the corporate world.

The ability to “endure” is the very definition of sustainability and requires that an organization or an individual does not take more from society than it gives back. Every company footprint must be contained accordingly, especially as we now know that greenhouse gas emissions have a very damaging effect on our environment as we use energy.

The carbon baseline is measured according to direct and indirect emissions and can become rather tricky to record. For example, most companies will be able to understand how their e missions fall within the first and second “scopes,” or directly attributable to their operation, but when it comes to the third scope, this is difficult to quantify. We will soon find that the third scope of emissions represents a rather large volume and can be classified according to after sales or supply-chain operations.

Organizations must understand that each asset that they are responsible for produces a certain amount of energy and consequently, an amount of emitted carbon. The individual operational characteristics of each asset must be understood by the organization as this is critical to the establishment of an overall carbon baseline for future performance.

Politicians are beginning to work out ways to force organizations to become sustainable, whether they like it or not. In some jurisdictions, complex trading schemes are already in place to set the bars on the production of emissions, leaving an organization no choice but to be fully aware of a carbon baseline in order to survive.

Carbon baseline standards must be adopted and individual asset energy performance understood before any steps can be taken to create a position of sustainability for the company. Many organizations are just becoming aware of this growing threat to their very survival, yet those who have initiated an early action could strive for a position of superiority over their peers.

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